Soundbar Advice

[ChrisLoudon]

Ok guys,

After a sizable house renovation my girlfriend and I have moved our daily TV watching out of an existing living room fitted with a fairly capable discrete 5.1.4 setup (see sig) into a new living area that unfortunately, I never gave much consideration to home cinema speaker placement.

This has left me thinking about soundbars, but this is where my home cinema knowledge pretty much ends.

Hopefully, someone here can offer a little bit of help and advise what I should get.

This bar will be paired with an old 2016 LG OLED (no eArc). Other connected devices will be a SkyQ mini box, PS4 and a PC for gaming and media playback. HDMI 2.1 isn't really necessary since the TV doesn't have that feature but it would be nice for future proofing.

I do like the thud of good bass so a separate wired or wireless sub as part of the package would be handy but I do have a spare REL Quake so if the bar had a sub out port then that could be an option if its performance was on par or better than any included option.

The rear soundstage is where I'm really struggling. The room has no provision for powering a pair of rear speakers without things looking messy so wireless / battery is a must if needed at all. I would probably buy a pair of discrete stands that could be tidied away when not required but I'd need to be confident the bar has the ability to adjust if / when rear speakers are connected or not.

The rest of my house is almost exclusively controlled by Yamaha's MusicCast but this bar will sit outside any ecosystem and work alone so I'm not tied to any manufacturer.

Budget is also not a consideration. Obviously, I don't want to pay over the odds but equally happy to pay a premium for the perfect addition to a new room.

Audio playback is also not a consideration as this room already has a monitor audio in ceiling solution so its purely for TV, Movies and Games.

And no, the existing ceiling speakers aren't positioned correctly to be used as Atmos heights.

I'd got as far as JBLs 9.1 which converts to 5.1.4 and then I fell down the rabbit hole...

Help!

Thanks in advance.

Chris.

[IPD]

Most Atmos soundbars I've seen only have a .2.  If this is an ancillary setup, and the hassle of rear speaker plumbing/space is of consideration, perhaps just go with a 3.1.2 soundbar?